Friday, May 16, 2008

The Boston Herald writer who broke the (false) news that the Patriots taped a Rams walkthrough before Super Bowl XXXVI has issued an apology. John Tomase basically claims that he published a rumor because he heard it from "various" people and solidified it when he heard that Walsh's assertion of skeletons in the Pats' closet. Here's a snippet....

Late in the 2006 season, I was having a casual conversation about the Patriots [team stats] when someone I trust threw out the following tidbit.

“I heard the Patriots filmed the Rams’ final walkthrough before Super Bowl XXXVI,” he said.

It was just a rumor, and certainly not actionable intelligence, as they say. He had heard it from a friend of a friend. I filed it away, and then forgot about it. Reporters hear stuff like that all the time.

Little did I know that comment would resurface from a much stronger source in the days after the Patriots had been caught filming the Jets’ defensive signals in September 2007.

Turns out I could not have been more wrong. I regret it, and that’s something I’m going to have to live with for the rest of my life.

He probably should have just ended it there, but he keeps going for another two pages of back story and standing by his original source. I really had never heard of John Tomase until this whole Rams walkthrough thing, and the guy seems genuinely sorry for the story, but seriously.....come on. I really just can't believe that a newspaper published a story based on one unsubstantiated rumor. Especially an allegation this huge. It blows my actually. You are not only gambling with your own career by going ahead with a piece like this, but you're gambling with the whole Newspaper's validity.

If you read the over three hundred comments attached to the apology I think you can find how Bostonians really feel, and as Robert Kraft has explained over the past few days, this is almost unforgivable from the team's standpoint. To lose the trust of a team in the most winning town in the Country is a death sentence, and who's to say the Celtics and Sox are going to trust them either?

There's no way the Pats will give the access back to Tomase he once had, and I'm extremely surprised he still has a job. Everyone deserves a second chance, but some people need a long break to think about what they've done before they get it.

8
Comments:

Your article contains one major error. Nowhere in his story/explanation today does John Tomase apologize. I think that is a HUGE point to make, and it seems a lot of people are missing that fact. The Herald apologized, but John did not. Not to the Herald, to the reader, or to the Patriots.

Your link to the Tomase piece should be re-labeled as a timeline, or an explanation. It is anything but an apology.

As a Pats fan, I just don't feel comfortable being able to get the best coverage of the team from him anymore; the Pats aren't going to let him do what he wants, and he's going to miss major things. He should be taken off the beat and reassigned to the Sox (where he used to work) or elsewhere

What about mentioning Mike Fish and Gregg Easterbrook and the way those guys ran with the Walsh stuff, insinuating stuff far beyond what actually happened. No walkthrough tape and no new cheating revelations -- just details on cheating we already knew happened. ESPN was happy to point out the (clearer) problems with the Herald story, but what about ESPN's salacious spygate coverage?

Legally, I think if Tomase wants a press credential from the Patriots they have to give him one. Indeed, these media cretins have taken this 'Fourth Estate' thing to their heads and now they'll take it to their graves. But if Tomase asks for and is granted a press credential, you can be sure the Patriots will make his beat a living Hell. If I were Tomase, I'd be off 'exploring other interests,' as the saying goes.